Ian Somerhalder was hit with a ton of backlash on social media after revealing in an interview earlier this week that he threw out Nikki Reed’s birth control pills without her knowledge so she’d get pregnant. The actress, however, is now defending her husband’s actions and clarifying the situation, exclusively telling Gossip Cop she initially came up with the idea to toss the pills.

The couple, who welcomed their first child in July, appeared on “Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast” this week to discuss their relationship. When asked about their decision to have a child, Reed revealed it happened last year “when [Ian] threw out all my birth control pills.” The actor noted that the incident occurred while the couple was on vacation in Spain, adding, ““We decided that we wanted to have children together, and it was just time. But unbeknownst to poor Nikki, she didn’t realize that I was going to go in her purse and take out her birth control.”

Somerhalder continued, “By the way, it was the beginning of the pack, so I had to pop all those suckers out. It is a lot of work, especially after a little bit of Sangria.” The actor further admitted he filmed himself discarding her pills and has “a six-minute video where she’s freaking out.” “Actually, now thinking about it, I guess I kind of decided [to start a family],” Somerhalder added.

Shortly after the interview aired, many people on social media slammed Somerhalder and accused him of trying to impregnate his wife without her permission. Many also deemed his behavior to be sabotage and insisted he violated his wife’s privacy and trust. But Reed clarifies the situation in an exclusively statement to Gossip Cop, telling us, “We had countless conversations about starting a family, and it was actually me who initially said to Ian, ‘When you’re ready just let me know and let’s throw out these pills and get started.'” In addition, the actress also tweeted, “WOMEN’S RIGHTS MATTER, so please don’t use false narratives to highlight issues that are truly important!” She added, “We should be talking about these things,but using a funny interview between married ppl & twisting it to perpetuate gossip is irresponsible.”

UPDATE: On Saturday, Reed and Somerhalder released a new statement, which they each tweeted on their respective Twitter accounts. Read it below.